Postdoctoral Fellow Position in Laboratory for Social Value
Decision Making, RIKEN CBS-TOYOTA
Collaboration Center, RIKEN Center for Brain Science

Decision Making of Trust and Social Network

Laboratory for Social Value Decision Making (https://cbs.riken.jp/en/faculty/btcc.svdm/)
in RIKEN Center for Brain Science (https://cbs.riken.jp/en/) is seeking a creative and motivated postdoctoral fellow to aim to address the following issues:

Societies around the world are now changing rapidly and in an accelerating pace. Research disciplines for studies of human being have not caught up with the rapid changes of the societies. To address these issues, our laboratory combines the research fields of decision science such as neuroeconomics, behavioral economics, psychology. In addition to these research fields of individual decision making, we will extend and connect principles of decision making to decision making at group and society levels with the aid of analysis techniques of big data, which are developed in new fields of collective behavior. Our research will bring about positive impacts to people in society by enhancing scientific understanding of humans and by creating sustainable designs of social systems. Through this exciting research endeavor, we create positive values for people in our global society.

References:
1) Wittmann, M.K., Kolling, N., Akaishi, R., Rushworth, M.F. et al. “Predictive decision making driven by multiple time-linked reward representations in the anterior cingulate cortex” Nature communications, 7, 12327 (2016).
2) Akaishi et al. “Neural mechanisms of credit assignment in a multicue environment.” Journal of Neuroscience, 36, 1096-1112 (2016)
3) Akaishi et al. “Autonomous mechanism of internal choice estimate underlies decision inertia” Neuron, 81, 195-206 (2014).

Job description
Decision Making of Trust and Social Network
This project will investigate how individual behaviors interact with collective decision making process. This decision process of a group involves forming and shaping a network according to goals of individuals and groups. The project involves conducting experiments in settings of artificial social network where multiple persons interact simultaneously. A special emphasis is placed on the most basic unit of network, a link or trusting relationship between two persons. We welcome people who wish to understand fundamental mechanisms of social relationships and how the basic social mechanisms constitute collective behavior of groups. We welcome applications from people with background of social/organizational psychology, management science and/or professional experience working with groups of people in talent/organizational development.

Qualifications:

1. 1) A candidate for postdoctoral researcher and/or research scientist needs to have Ph.D. (D.Phil) or is expected to have obtained Ph.D. (D.Phil) before the date of assuming the position.
2.  
3. 2) We also welcome candidates who have experience in dealing with groups of people in their academic research and/or professional occupations such as organizational/talent developments. In these cases, we do not require Ph.D. and accept talented people as technical staff.
4.  
5. 3) With a diverse team and extended networks within and across organizations, communication skill is important for this position.

Start date: August 2019 and later. We also consider flexibility in work styles in working time and place.

Salary: Salary in the initial year is commensurate with standards for Postdoctoral researchers in RIKEN. Increase of salary from the second fiscal year is possible.

Application process:

1. (1) Complete CV (with photo and email address)
   Please indicate either ① or ②.
   ①（RIKEN CV；理研書式の場合）*Write the RIKEN job ad number “W19XXX”, indicated in the parentheses next to the job title, in the RIKEN job ad number section in the upper right corner of your CV.
   ②（Original CV；任意書式の場合）*Write down in the notes section of your CV the number written next to the title of the job position (e.g. W19XXX).
2. (2) List of research achievements and publications
3. (3) A letter of recommendation including one from the current supervisor
   (If the current supervisor’s recommendation is not available, a recommendation letter from a third party will be accepted）
4. (4) Research Plan (Optional)
5. (5) Consent form for handling personal information based on GDPR
   If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you are required to submit the document, “Consent form for handling personal information based on GDPR” with your signature.
   *You will find detailed information about General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the following website:
   https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en

Contacts and Information
For more information about this ad, see the website of RIKEN CBS
https://cbs.riken.jp/en/careers/20190422_w19012_btcc.html

RIKEN CBS, RIKEN CBS-TOYOTA Collaboration Center
Laboratory for Social Value Decision Making,
2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198
Tel: +81 (0)48 462-1111 (Ext. 7194) / FAX: +81 (0)48 -467-6859
Email: rei.akaishi[at]riken.jp (Replace [at] with @ )